Pompeo spoke for the first time about Heigl's departure from the show, throwing some shade in her former co-star's direction:

"When Katie left, it was tough. You could understand why she wanted to go -- when you’re offered $12 million a movie and you’re only 26. But Katie’s problem is that she should not have renewed her contract. She re-upped, took a big raise and then tried to get off the show. And then her movie career did not take off,” Pompeo said.

Pompeo also revealed that "Grey's" creator Shonda Rhimes wanted to cast Isaiah Washington as her character's boyfriend, but she pushed back on the idea ... because she is married to an African-American man and felt the storyline was "too close to home."

“You know they wanted Isaiah Washington to be my boyfriend. Shonda really wanted to put a black man in the mix. I didn’t think they were really going to put an interracial couple on the show and I didn’t want him. It was too close to home ... I said I wanted that Dempsey kid. I think that once Isaiah did not get the role it backfired," she told the Post.